Mo'Feir (ch. 2....still)

I was sitting there as Keegan watched the movie, but I wasn’t thinking about that. I was trying to figure everything out. How was I going to tell her what I wanted to tell her? I was almost nervous, but I wasn’t. Mo’Feir Ahmad Dwel never gets nervous, I thought to myself. Without saying a word, I slowly pulled Keegan toward me by the waist. She was light, and I moved her as if she were fragile. In my mind, she was. She kicked off her shoes and before I knew it we were snuggled up in the corner of the couch, half watching the movie. At least, I was half watching it. She was so warm against me, and I had my arms around her waist, with my hands resting on her stomach.
“You know, I haven’t felt for you this much ever, until sometime last week,” I whispered lightly in her ear. It was true, too. Sometime the week before we had been talking on the phone, and when we hung up I just could not stop thinking about her. It was getting obvious to me that what I was feeling was going way past friendship…far beyond. She didn’t respond to what I said, but I did feel her tense up a little.
“Key-” I said right when she cut me off.
“I feel what you’re saying, Mo. I just wouldn’t know what to think of a relationship with you,” she said in a low whisper.
“We don’t have to get in a relationship immediately, but we can talk things through and see how it goes,” I said, waiting patiently for her reply.
“Well, can we talk about this later, when we get back to your place?” Keegan asked me, looking over at her father.
“Yeah,” I said, pulling her just a little closer to me and resting my head near her neck. While watching the movie, thoughts were running through my head. I knew that she hadn’t been in a real relationship before to my knowledge, and I didn’t want to hurt her in any way. She was close to my heart, and it wasn’t just because I was beginning to like her in this manner, but it was because I had known her for so long and she was my friend before anything, and I would give anything to go beyond friendship with Keegan.
*****
About fifteen minutes before the movie ended, Keegan’s father woke up. We were all in the movie so we didn’t know that he was awake until he stood up and walked to the kitchen. He came back into the living room with a bottle of water and finished the movie with us. When the movie went off, he cut off the television and Keegan cut on the lights.
“That was a pretty good movie,” he said as if he were awake the entire time.
“Yeah, I know. Especially towards the middle of it,” Keegan said in a sarcastic manner. I smiled and her dad nodded his head.
“Yes, that was a good part of the movie,” he said smiling at her. “What are you two going to get into now?”
Keegan looked over at me and I looked down at my watch. It was nearly eleven. I didn’t have anything planned, but I did have to get back to house to check up with Ca’Reighn and Carthez.
“You ready to leave?” I asked Keegan.
“Sure,” she said while putting her shoes on. “It doesn’t matter to me.”“Alright, then,” I said standing up. “It was really nice meeting you, Mr….I mean Spencer.”
He gave me a firm handshake and a smile. “I enjoyed your company. The two of you should come by sometime later on this week, if you would like.”
“Definitely,” I said smiling and looking back at Keegan as she stood up. “I wouldn’t mind that at all.”
“Neither would I,” Keegan said. “Alright, well, I guess we will be going now.”“Alright, baby,” her father said giving her a hug as we headed to the door.
“You two be safe,” he said, giving me a pat on the back as we headed to my truck.
“Alright goodnight, daddy,” Keegan said back to him.
“Goodnight,” he said and went back inside. I passed her my keys and got in on the passenger side.
“Your dad is a pretty cool guy,” I said to her as she started up the truck. She didn’t say anything, but she just smiled at me.
“You think he liked me?” I asked her, trying not to smile. There was a moment of silence and then we both just started laughing.
“Don’t trip,” she said after the laughing died down, “You obviously gave him a good first impression because he didn’t so much as give you a mean look.”
“Right, right. You know I try,” I said looking out of the window. The sky was clear and the stars were bright, and it had been a while since I had seen that. Seeing the stars like that always touched me some way, and I never told anyone about it, it was just something that caught me off guard.
“What are you thinking of?” Keegan asked me about three minutes into my thoughts.
“Everything.” I looked at her as she drove, then added, “You know, you never answered my question when we were in my room earlier.”
She looked at me confused and sexy as hell, and I couldn’t help but smile at her.
“What question?”
“When I got out of the shower and you were looking at me…and I said that anyone who looks at me like that has to want it. Do you?” I said, smile fading. She didn’t really look uncomfortable, she even smiled.
“I don’t know,” she said glancing my way. At that, I just looked at her.
“Should I give you a reason to?” I asked playfully.
“Definitely,” she said, and she got my hopes up, just before she said, “Not.”
“Keegan, those were my emotions,” I said pretending to be hurt, “and you just stepped on them.”“You’ll be alright,” Keegan said to me. “Let’s talk real talk though.”
Shocked the hell out of me, that statement did.
“Like what?” I asked pretending I had no idea of what she was talking about.
“You already know, and you want to talk real talk, so start off the talking real,” Keegan said, turning in my neighborhood.
“When we get in the house,” I said looking forward. I was surprised she remembered exactly where I stayed. She had only come there the previous day, and I guess it wasn’t hard to learn for her…I liked that. This woman knew her way around.
*****
When we walked in the house, Ca’Reighn and Carthez were sitting in the living room watching a movie. Ca’Reighn’s boyfriend, Jason, was sitting beside her on the couch, and Carthez was sitting on the chair to the right of them. They were watching one of those low budget hood movies that I kept in my DVD collection.
“Hey what’s up?” I said sticking my head in the door.
“Hey,” Carthez and Ca’Reighn said in unison and Jason said, “What’s good?”
“Everything for now. Remember, by one thirty you already know the deal,” I reminded Jason. He didn’t come on to my sister too strong, and they didn’t get away with much, so she didn’t try. We had already discussed that. Keegan stepped past me and into the living room.
“Hey, guys,” she said smiling. Sexy, always sexy. Jason looked up kind of surprised, and Keegan gasped.
“Jason? What’s up?” she said.
“Nothing, girl, what are you doing here?”
Carthez was looking crazy, and Ca’Reighn had that same look. Twins. Nothing like them.
“Cousins,” Keegan explained to the twins and that confused look was replaced.
“Oh,” Ca’Reighn said. “I thought y’all probably went to school or something together. Anywho, how do you do?”
“Good, good,” Keegan said and walked over to whisper something in her ear. Ca’Reighn laughed and so did she. She then gave Jason a hug and walked back to where I stood. Ca’Reighn was looking at me smiling, and Carthez spoke up.
“It is not polite to whisper things,” he said loudly.
“It’s not polite to talk during movies,” Keegan said, and with that she left the room. I said goodnight and walked behind her.
“My room or yours?” I asked walking close enough behind her to hold her if I wanted to. I then stopped between the two bedrooms.
“Yours,” she said and I grabbed her hand, pulling her into my bedroom. Closing the door, I placed my hand on her cheek, just enough to actually feel the warmth of her skin, and closed the space between us. She didn’t move. I moved in as if to kiss her, came close enough to her lips to call it a kiss, and stepped back, smiling.
“Let me stop playing around. You want real talk, so here it is,” I said sitting down on the floor. She sat across from me and leaned forward just a little. She was looking older than she appeared to look a few weeks earlier. She was still holding that girlish look, but maybe that had been my way of seeing her. Here she was looking like a woman, and she didn’t even know it.
“I know that you haven’t been in a relationship before, and I promise you that I haven’t had these types of feelings for you until about a week or two ago. Since then, I think I actually realized how I feel,” I said and paused for a second, then I added, “and that I would want to take this beyond friendship.
I know that you will have to think about this, and that you probably don’t want to get into a relationship just yet, but all I want is for you to consider it. I haven’t been in a relationship in…about three years now, but I know this feeling, and it is definitely no joke,” I said without even looking up. I was looking at my hands the entire time, sort of afraid of how she was taking this.
“Well,” Keegan said, and I looked up at her. “I don’t know what to say to that, but I can’t say that I didn’t see it coming. I’ll think about it.”
“I can settle with that,” I said. “You tired?”
“A little, I think I’ll go get ready to get in the bed,” she answered standing up. I stood up as she headed out the door, and walked out long enough to see her go in her room and close the door. Everything said in less than five minutes I thought to myself. Better than I thought. I looked at the clock and it was nearly half past midnight. I had to get to work the next morning so I got ready to get some sleep in.